


A Little Rain Never Hurt

by NikAdair



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friends bonding, Modern AU, broganes, camping trip, reluctant keith, summer fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 06:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19371607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikAdair/pseuds/NikAdair
Summary: Summers were meant for friends. Sunny days given to camping. Shiro drags Keith with the crew on a camping trip, and though he’s reluctant at first, he finds that he enjoys the trip after all.





	A Little Rain Never Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This fic was originally written for the Summer Lovin’ Voltron Zine, which is a free downloadable PDF zine! It was a blast to be able to write a piece for this and I hope you all enjoy it!

“Remind me again why I got dragged along on this trip?” Keith asked, turning his gaze away from the moving landscape outside the window to look at Shiro. Shiro glanced over at him, giving him a deadpan expression. Keith rolled his eyes, looking in the rearview window.

Hunk and Pidge were sprawled out in the middle seats, each of them on their laptops doing who knows what (Keith once caught them doing school work earlier that summer, and he had yet to forgive them). Lance was laying across the back seat, headphones on as he air drummed with his music.

Keith shook his head, turning back to look out the window. He saw Shiro’s reflection turn towards him, and caught his eye. There was mischief in it, and it made Keith turn to look at him. He gave Shiro a questioning look, but Shiro just winked at him and continued driving.

Keith shrugged and turned the radio up, bobbing his head a little along with the music, and when the song had ended, he was thrown forward in his seat. Shiro was laughing as he drove, and Keith heard Pidge and Hunk grumbling in their seats. Lance, however, had managed to fall on the floor.

“What the hell Shiro?” Lance yelled, his head peeking over the middle seats. Shiro let out another loud laugh, and Keith couldn’t help but laugh with him. He turned and watched Lance get back on the seat, shoving a few bags onto the floor that had fallen out of the back onto the seat.

“Maybe you should get buckled next time I tell you to,” Shiro said between laughs. Lance looked back forward and stuck his tongue out at him, and Keith shook his head at them. It was one thing for Lance to act childish, but it was another for Shiro to do it.

They drove for another few minutes before turning off into a wooded area. Shiro seemed to have made it his goal to hit every bump, and Lance’s noises of protest could be heard clearly over the music. Keith thought it was fun. It was something he would do. Shiro was always the cautious driver, always avoiding stuff like that.

They followed the path, passing several turn offs, until they came to a clearing. A fire pit stood in the middle, ringed with rocks, and logs were spread around it. It was wide, wide enough for tents to be put up behind the log seats and for there to still be space between them and the trees surrounding the space.

Shiro parked and everyone got out, doing various stretches from having been in the car for so long. “Hunk, Pidge, how about you two get the tents set up? Lance, you help me get everything else out. And Keith, how about you use those survival skills of yours to start up a fire?” Shiro said, facing the group. Various iterations of agreement were heard, and Keith rolled his eyes as he wandered into the woods.

Keith figured he’d be the one to get the fire started. Out of everyone, he was the only one who ever had any success in it. He walked along a worn path, sunlight streaming in patches through the canopy of the leaves. He picked up leaves and twigs as he walked, filling his arms with the plant life. He had a considerably sized pile by the time he walked back to the fire pit.

He set them down and went back for some larger sticks. The twigs would burn too quickly and cause the fire to die. He had to go deeper down the path to find some good sized sticks. The further he walked, the more wild the woods seemed. He saw multiple kinds of flowers growing alongside the path, and saw a few deer walking around. He took a moment to stand and watch them.

“Keith! Come on!” Shiro shouted. Even this far in, his voice rang. The deer picked their heads up and ran deeper into the trees. Keith sighed, grabbing a few more sticks, and made his way back to the campsite.

“Thank you for scaring away the deer,” Keith said as he passed Shiro. He dropped to his knees next to the fire pit and got the twigs and leaves lit, blowing gently on them to get the fire to catch. Once it had, he fed it a few more twigs before placing sticks on top, one at a time to keep from smothering the flame.

Keith felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up, finding Shiro there. “Great job with the fire kiddo.” He rolled his eyes, standing. He looked over at the others - Lance had gone to help Hunk and Pidge, and they were getting the last tent set up. Various bags were set outside them, correlating to where everyone would be sleeping - Lance and Hunk in one tent, Keith and Shiro in another, and Pidge in their own.

They made quick work of finishing the last tent, and they all gathered around the fire. “So, Hunk, what do you have planned for dinner tonight?” Shiro asked, rummaging through a bag to start getting food out. Hunk pushed him aside, finishing the job.

“You’ll find out when it’s done,” he said. Shiro raised his hands in defense as he stepped back, and Keith laughed a little at seeing the mighty Shiro defeated by Hunk. Shiro turned and gave him a look, flopping onto the ground next to fire. Keith shook his head, looking up at the sky.

“Looks like rain,” he commented. Pidge looked up, nodding. “You sure it’s a good idea to be out here tonight?” Shiro grunted as he stood, dusting off his pants as he pulled out his phone.

“According to this, it’s not supposed to rain until after we leave tomorrow.” Keith and Pidge looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Shiro was always one to believe what he’s told rather than what it looks like.

“I agree with Shiro,” Lance said, slinging an arm over his shoulder. “It’s just a few clouds. That doesn’t mean it’s going to rain.” Shiro smirked, nodding along with what Lance said. Keith rolled his eyes again, pulling out his phone.

“Whatever. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when it does start to rain,” he said, scrolling through Tumblr. Hunk had called Lance and Shiro over to help him cook, so he and Pidge were sprawled across the logs. Keith had grown bored of Tumblr and had turned his attention to the fire. He’d always liked flames, the way they flickered and grew, shifting with the wind.

Consequently, watching the fire meant watching the three of them cook, and while that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, Shiro could not cook to save his life. Hunk was flipping what looked to be burgers, and Lance was stirring what smelled to be potatoes in a pot. The smells on their own were enough to make Keith’s stomach growl. Shiro was off to the side, carefully slicing tomatoes, and he was struggling. The slices were different sizes and thickness. Keith stifled a laugh as he watched.

It wasn’t long before Pidge grew bored of their phone and got up to help Shiro. He looked grateful as they took the vegetables from him and finished cutting them, moving faster than Keith thought was safe. They got done around the same time that Hunk and Lance got down cooking, and they all grabbed plates, sending the food around the group - burgers that tasted like heaven and homemade potato chips that were perfectly cooked and salted.

Keith was still eyeing the sky. The clouds had grown, and he could smell rain on the wind. Pidge seemed to be doing the same. He caught Shiro rolling his eyes at him, and Keith stuck his tongue out at him. Screw what any phone said, nature had a good way of telling you when it was going to rain, and it was doing a good job at it.

“Shiro, I really do think it’s going to rain. You can smell it on the wind,” he said, finishing the last of his food before throwing the paper plate in the fire. It charred and curled before falling below the sticks to mix with the dirt and ash.

“We’ll be fine. It’s not gonna rain,” Shiro said, doing the same with his plate. The others followed soon after, content smiles on their faces. “Just relax, old Shiro knows what he’s talking about.”

“So you admit that you’re old?” Pidge commented, laying along the log they were on. Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but closed it, looking to the ground. “We all heard it. Old Shiro and his grandpa hair.”

“I’ll have you know that my hair is perfectly acceptable,” he said in defense, a hand going to run through it. Lance laughed, placing a hand on Shiro’s shoulder.

“Shiro, my man, your hair is acceptable for someone in their 50s or 60s, not someone in their late 20s.” Shiro feigned hurt, pulling his shoulder away from Lance, and both Keith and Hunk laughed, earning a poorly hid smile from Shiro.

“Say what you want Lance, but you’re going to have hair like mine one day,” Shiro said, earning a shove from Lance. The group laughed, and Lance couldn’t stop himself from laughing along with them.

“I’ll be able to pull it off better than you ever could,” Lance said. Shiro rolled his eyes with a humorous smile. Keith watched as Lance’s hand snaked behind him and he pulled the bag of marshmallows over to him. Shiro saw too, and jumped to grab them, missing by a few inches. Lance stood and ran behind the log that Pidge was perched upon, putting distance between him and Shiro.

“Are you really doing this?” Keith asked, looking behind him as Lance opened the bag. He lobbed one over his head at Shiro, who turned just in time to get hit in the face. Keith shook his head. “I guess that answers my question.”

They chased each other around the circle, and it wasn’t long before Hunk reached up and plucked the bag from Lance’s hands. “How about instead of throwing these, we make s’mores? Sounds like a better plan to me,” he said, walking over to the rest of the s’mores stuff. Lance huffed and sat where Hunk had been, and Shiro walked back to where he had been sitting, both boys out of breath.

It wasn’t even a minute after they’d sat back down when the first rain drop hit Keith’s cheek. He looked up, another drop hitting his face, and he looked to Pidge. They had a few drops on their glasses, and when they looked back at them, it was like a dam had opened. It started down pouring, the fire going out in seconds. Lance, Pidge, and Hunk ran back to the car, leaving Keith and Shiro to pack up their stuff.

They had to make several trips to get everything packed, and by the time they did, they were drenched, their clothes weighing heavily on them. Keith got in the passenger seat, shaking his head and causing water to spray everywhere. Shiro got in soon after, and he started the car, cranking the heat up. Keith put his frozen hands in front of the vents, sighing a little as heat seeped into them.

“I told you it was going to rain,” Keith muttered, glancing at Shiro, who had done a similar thing with his hands. He got a tired sigh in return, and it made him smile. He could hear Pidge cackling behind him, and they snorted. It was quiet for a second before everyone burst into laughter, and Keith could feel tears forming in his eyes from laughing.

At some point, Lance had connected his phone to the radio, and a bunch of pop songs started playing, though there were a few rock songs mixed in there. They all took turns singing (if you could call it that, it was mainly shouting) and laughing at everyone’s attempts to hit notes they couldn’t hit. At one point Bohemian Rhapsody started playing and they got so into it that the car started shaking.

The rain stopped after about an hour, and by then they’d gotten into all the snacks they brought, wrappers strewn about the car. Keith was finishing a Hershey bar when he noticed. “I think it’s finally stopped.” The others peered out the windows before turning to look at each other. Keith looked at Shiro. “Are we staying?”

He watched as Shiro bobbed his head a little before shaking it. “Nah, we’ll head home and just hang out there. I’d rather not chance getting caught in more rain.” Keith nodded settling into his seat. He was still shaking, and jumped a little when he saw a blanket out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see Hunk holding it.

“You look like you need it,” he said with a smile. Keith took it gratefully, feeling a tinge of guilt at making the blanket wet. He sighed, closing his eyes. He could hear the three in the back talking about some show they liked, their voices mixing with the now soft radio. He turned his head to look out the window, watching as the clouds slowly parted, letting him see the stars.

Part of him was still a little annoyed that Shiro had brought him along on the camping trip. Mainly because if he hadn’t gone, he wouldn’t be sitting in wet clothes and shivering. But a larger part of him was thankful he had. A weekend with friends and family - it was definitely something he’d needed. His chest felt lighter, and he felt happier.

Looking up at the stars, he smiled, thankful to have the people he did. And maybe he’d ask to go on another camping trip, this time on a day where it wasn’t supposed to rain, with these people again. That thought made him smile, and he honestly couldn’t think of a better way to have spent his day.


End file.
